Luton's People 1914-1918
This page contains a list of soldiers/civilians from Luton and surroundings 1914-1918, and the ancestors of people who live in Luton today. It has been compiled from the 1918 Luton Absent Voters List, Rolls of Honour; and information researched and uploaded by project volunteers and members of the public.
If you find your ancestor here, and there is only basic information available, then feel free to use the comment box to add further information you may already know. The WWI Project Team, can then add this further information to the basic data we already hold.
The sources of this information can be found via the links below. Please feel free to download and use this information, but please please search for and upload your ancestor to the site if/when you find them:-
Absent Voters List
Luton Roll of honour
Before adding anybody to the site, it is always advisable to search for your ancestor first.
Pte Albert Ford, 25327, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 17th, 1916, of wounds sustained on the Somme. He was aged 19 and the second son of John and Emma Ford, of 48 Burr Street, Luton, to die on the battlefield.
Pte Leonard Stapleton, 18413, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 18th, 1916. He was aged 33.
Born in 1883 in Stondon, Beds, he was the son of Sarah Stapleton, who married George Hyde in Stondon, also that year.
Second-Lieut Arthur Haworth, King's Liverpool Regiment, attached to the Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action rallying his men against a German counter-attack on the Somme on July 19th, 1916. He was aged 20.
Cpl Fred Smith, 6289, 2/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 19th, 1916. He was aged 24 and one of five sons of Thomas George and Sophia Smith, of 73 North Street, Luton, serving with the Colours.
Pte Ernest Barker, 3/7094, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on October 28th, 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres.
Meredyth Robert Owen Williams was born in April 1894. He was the youngest of 6 children born to Alderman Herbert Owen & Edith Jane.
Pte Ernest George Foord, 27058, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment attached to the 10th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, was killed in action on July 22nd, 1916, after serving only three weeks on the Somme. He was aged 29.
Pte Albert Smith, 27481, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was the second son of George and Sophia Smith, of 73 North Street, Luton, to be killed in action on the Somme within four days. He died on July 22nd, 1916, at the age of 21.
Pte Aubrey Stanbridge, 27467, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, attached to the 10th Worcesters, was killed in action on the Somme on July 23rd, 1916.
John Edward Godfrey, formerly Sapper 1611, 2nd East Anglian Division Royal Engineers, died on July 24th, 1916, nearly 18 months after being discharged as medically unfit for military service. Born in Caddington, he was aged 32.
L-Cpl Edwin Granville Harvey, 14925, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme at Longueval on July 24th, 1916. He was aged 21.
Pte Percy Haydn Day, 15608, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds sustained in action on the Somme on July 27th, 1916.
Pte Charles Gregory, 3/6858, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 27th, 1916.
Pte Alexander Penman, 9385, 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, died on September 22nd, 1915, of wounds sustained in action at Bois Grenier in Belgium. He was aged 24 and single.
Pte Frederick Allen, 20981, 10th Border Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 30th, 1916. He was aged 34 and he and some chums had been fighting with the 16th Battalion Manchester Regiment for just a few days before his death.
Pte Gerald Sidney Brunton. 25529, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 30th, 1916. He was aged 21 and single.
L-Cpl John Prime, 14102, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 31st, 1916. He was aged 23 and the younger son of John and Eliza Prime, of 2 Front Street, Slip End.
Pte Albert Rolfe, 18312, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on August 1st, 1916, from wounds sustained in action on the Somme. He had been in France since July 27th, 1915.
Pte William Bavister, 18577, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment died on August 3rd, 1916, in the London General Hospital from wounds sustained on the Somme. He had been in France for around 12 months.
Gunner Frederick Dean, 7825, Royal Garrison Artillery, was discharged from military service in 1913 following an operation for gunshot wounds. He had served eight years as a soldier, but after war broke out he was again called up and sent to France.
Pte Hedley Richard Farr, G/20105, 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own), was reported to have been killed in action on the Somme on August 8th, 1916. He was aged 38, single and had lived with his widowed mother Eliza (nee Groom) at 32 Liverpool Road, Luton.
Pte George Arthur Young, 13405, 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was serving in East Africa when he died in hospital from an unspecified disease on July 29th, 1916. He was buried in Dar es Salaam War Cemetery in German East Africa (now Tanzania).
Sgt William Henry Bunyan, 19010, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on August 9th, 1916. He was a Lutonian who had previously served with the Bedfords and had been living at Ash Vale, Surrey, before rejoining his regiment at the outbreak of war.
Gwynne Evan Owen Williams was born in Luton in April 1881. He was the eldest son of 6 children born to Alderman Herbert Owen & Edith Jane.
Pte Charles Henry Grace, 23835, 12th Battalion South Wales Borderers, was killed in action in France on August 13th, 1916. He was the son of Arthur and Kate Grace, of Aley Green, and is commemorated on the Caddington War Memorial.
Charles Marlow was born in 1875 in Sundon, near Dunstable in Bedfordshire. He was 1 of 7 children born to William & Sarah Ann.
Frederick Stanley Marlow was born in 1898 in Chalton, Bedfordshire. He was the eldest of 2 children born to Charles & Kate.
Sgt William Ellingham, one of the first Lutonians to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, was killed in action on the Somme on August 18th, 1916. He was a son of Arthur and Annie Ellingham, of 8 Jubilee Street, Luton, and served in the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers.
Lutonian Pte Ernest Arthur Pestell, 2428, Australian Infantry, died in a Stationary Hospital in France on August 19th, 1916, from wounds sustained in action on the Somme.
Pte Percy Dumpleton, 4631, 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, died in the 27th General Hospital, Abassia, Cairo, Egypt, on August 22nd, 1916, following an attack of dysentery and enteric fever (typhoid). A Luton News report said he died of inflammation of the membrane of the brain.
Driver Arthur Smith, 524236, 1/2nd East Anglian Division Royal Engineers, died suffering from pneumonia in the Government Hospital in Suez, Egypt, on August 28th, 1916.
Pte Ralph Green, 34816, 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, died on August 30th, 1916, from wounds received in action on the Somme on August 27th. He was the second son of Luton Town FC Secretary Mr Charles Green and his wife Ellen (nee Shaw), of 73 Hazelbury Crescent, Luton.
Cpl Alfred John Axtell, 19/312, 19th Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Pioneers) was killed by an explosive shell on August 23rd, 1916, during the British advance on the Somme.
L-Sgt Joseph Plater, 8393, C Company, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 3rd, 1916. He was aged 29 and left a widow Ellen Beatrice (nee Bingham) and one son, Ronald (born 1913).
Pte Horace Fensome, 13261, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was presumed killed in action on the Somme on or after September 3rd, 1916.